The team is almost threadbare, no significant purchases, the season ticket sales are not encouraging, the bed wetters on other CAFC sites are predicting relegation, the board are trying to sell, the future is not looking good. AND THATS JUST THE BLOODY WAY I LIKE IT!!!! No easy ride for me, I like chaos and uncertainty, I like the CAFC of the eighties, one morning your in the top 5 of the league, the next morning, a load of gypsies have camped in your car park.
only thing that could be worse, would be for a team to sign up a load of our rejects who got us sent down to league 1... be in proper bother then. aha aha!
I do sort of understand this. I suspect in retrospect that I actually perversely enjoyed the whole slide to League 1, if only because escaping the evil Premiership made me fall for Football again.
Only problem is that if we fall into L1 again I am not at all sure that the club that emerges will be the Charlton we all know and love
Yeah, all true, but one of the exciting things about times like these is when we turn it around and suddenly surge up the table with a couple of clever signings and a few maturing youngsters. I won't be holding my breath this season.
This season is unique. WE can't ever have been in this situation, where the management team and almost the entire playing staff have their contracts running down at the end of the season. It's the elephant in the room, and we will shortly find out how it will affect performance on the field.
We really do have some weird fans. Why would you not want Charlton to be playing in the highest division? I hated Charlton playing in Div 1 against the likes of Hartlepool, Rochdale etc. Why would you want the team you support not playing at the highest level? I just don't get it. I loved it in the Premiership with the Stadium packed, I don't really care that some of the fans weren't Charlton fans. To see the best players in the country/ world playing on the hallowed Charlton turf was wonderful. Plus with the amount of money we would get. I really don't like where we are at the moment, with the owners running the club into the ground. Offering trials to the likes of McGurk and Church. Having nineteen first team players out of contract in ten months time. Settling out of court with Peter Varney for the £10000.00 pounds he was owed then turning around and saying, to get his money he would have to issue a winding up order against the football club. The debt has now been settled. The sooner the current owners sell up the better,so the club can move forwards. My biggest fear is that Chris Powell, who we owe an enormous debt of gratitude to, will walk. He and his coaching staff are also out of Contract in ten months time.
Dick, For some its the glory for others its the struggle. Your the glory type. I understand that. Your also towing the party line again for the supporters trust. Think for yourself. Are the board really not trying? apart from my wife not a lot of people like wasting money and ruining businesses. If they could sell they would, if they could buy they would, the market is not favourable-live with it. Have some balls and stay on the ride, it could be fun. We totally lost our way as a club in the PL. We sold out our values and our fans out (not to mention Curbs) for what? A few seats sold to mockneys and tourists. I'd rather stay in this league than endure all manner of shiny plimsolls types that I had to sit next to while in the PL. We also owe Chris Powell nothing. We pay him. I don't think I owe anyone any gratitude for doing a job that you get paid for. He is a fantastic fella but really...this lording has got to stop. I notice he has lost his knighthood recently, but this rather patronising love affair with a bloke that is doing something that he is paid to do is getting a bit tiresome. Equally has history wiped our the debt that we owe to the current board? you remember? the ones that stopped us sliding into division 2 purchased us a new team and got us promotion? I mean credit where it is due? Or do we expect even more from them? while all the time some supporters show their faith by continually whyning at them and spreading rather daft rumours that a child with an abacus would work out as bollocks and threatening a takeover with a combined consortium package of approx. £3000? It's all about keeping it real.
I like being in the second tier, because I see that as normal for us. Last season was a normal season, and we finished in almost exactly the right place as would befit a club of our standing. We had lows, and we had ups. a nice, normal season. Another of those would do me very nicely.
I like being in the second tier, but for purely selfish reasons - when we were in the Premiership, I only saw 12 live games in seven seasons - as an exile, non S/T holder, I simply couldn't get in. When I did get in, some of the football was excruciatingly bad. In the last two seasons, I got to more than 30 games, saw some damned good football and met some honest, down-to-earth fans as well. As I say, selfish reasons.
One of the things I like about D1 and the championship is going to places like Ipswich and Huddersfield where they do not have rules about wearing mini skirts and stretch pants-you get to see some really horrific things. My real thing about the Prem League is teams like Newcastle. I would rather support Palace now than Newcastle. I can only pronounce about three of their first team surnames and with their current buying philosophy they have totally lost all contact with that City. I cannot imagine what connection the fans have with the players and the identity and soul has really gone from that club. Its a shame because my family originally come from Hereford.
What do you mean as honest as I can be??? I can be really be really honest at times. taking intro consideration the following variables. The Championship has traditionally 2 crap teams in it. We are not one of those. One team therefore will be relegated that was not predicted to. Equally, it will have one good team that will get promotion leaving two teams to go up. I say 12 teams have that potential. The point spread last season was about 15 points between relegation and play off - That perhaps indicates all sides are equal and a good start or a 20 goal a season man could mean something special. We do have the nucleus of a decent squad. This squad is elite and streamlined so no messing about with formations here, injuries aside I prefer a settled team. The board have a plan I have no friggin idea what that plan is but they do. I expect loans to flood in when the window closes. They have a existing modus operandi for this sort of approach. I say 10th which suits me fine.
I really can't be fobbed off as a glory fan Typical, I have supported Charlton for fifty two years home and away. I have supported the youth, reserves for over twenty five years. I have not seen much glory in those fifty two years. I have been to Grimsby on a winter night, Port Vale, Hartlepool, Bury. What is so wrong with wanting to see your Club at Man U, Liverpool etc. That is not being a glory boy it is wanting what is best for the Club. We might as well do away with promotion. I bet Crystal Palace are thinking at the moment, I wish I was going to Barnsley instead of Man U. I don't think so.
There you go again T...... always glass half full! I would be over the moon with 10th...... a team with just one experienced centre forward and NO MONEY......
Your missing the point, Dick. What did Del Trotter say on winning his millions 'the fun was in the struggle and now I am a millionairre, its not as much fun as I thought it would be" Piere De Courbitan said it more succinctly but I can't remember. If you want glory for CAFC that's great. BUT IT WONT BE YOUR GLORY it will be all credited to fat director and rich mercenary foreign footballers who have about as much love for CAFC as I do for salads. As a fan where is the glory. I get more of a buzz out of watching a youth player come through the ranks and make it onto our pitch than any match against Man U. That fills me with pride watching one of our own make it, even in the Championship. What is the best for the club? Was it PL status? look what that created? Was the climb really worth the fall. Was that best for the club? or did it open a juggler? Greed and ambition are fatal and the directors and some supporters succumbed to both. Ask a Chelsea fan, if they have ever dug up their teams pitch or a gooner if they have ever formed a political party or a Spud if they have ever been to the town hall fighting the local council on planning permission, or a man u fan if they clubbed together to buy a player. That is real glory my friend, having to struggle together and coming out of it.
